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FINANCIAL CLAIMS
Final Hearing
The final hearing is a more formal hearing
than the FDR appointment. A Judge hearing the case will be
different to the one who would have sat at the FDR and will
not therefore be aware of the without prejudice proposals
the parties had made. Both parties are required to attend
in person and give oral evidence under oath. After hearing
the evidence the Judge will order whatever he or she believes
is appropriate and fair in the circumstances.
Although the Courts have power to impose
any order it wishes it is usual for the courts to make orders
which are broadly within the framework of what the parties
wish for themselves. The final outcome which the court would
view as fair in a case can often be achieved by a number of
varying orders and often the chosen form in any case will
be dependant as much on the parties wishes as it is on the
legal principles and precedents of past cases.
See section on
Financial
Orders for the types of orders
that can be made.
 Order
for Costs
At the final hearing the Court will also
consider whether to make any order for costs. Sometimes
costs can be awarded against a party for unreasonable conduct
during the course of the proceedings eg failing to make
full disclosure of finances, failing to enter negotiations,
or not complying with Court directions.
Also costs can be ordered where one
party, the winning party’ , has achieved a Financial Order
which is more favourable then offer made to him or her by
the other party. In these cases the court can make the other
party pay the costs of the first party which have been incurred
from the date of the offer made. It should be noted however
that in ancillary claims it is not always possible to determine
who the ‘winning party’ is due to the complex and differing
types of orders that can be made by the Court. Often there
is no winner. For this reason it is advisable that when
considering settlement that a party has no expectation that
the other spouse will be ordered to pay all or part of the
costs.
When considering what costs order
to make the Court will take into account
• the terms of the offers made by
the parties,
• the stage at which the offers were
made
• the information that the parties
had available when the offers were made
• the conduct of the parties in giving
or refusing to give information to enable the offers to
be evaluated
• the financial position of the parties
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